The Path of Brotherhood
by Kamitra
Summary: Sound isn't what Sasuke expected, but Leaf wasn't something he planned on running away from. They treat him well... better than he treats himself. Now series of oneshots. [Ch.2] Many years later, Sasuke remembers. [Ch.3] Time passes. Sasuke lives.
1. The Path of Brotherhood

My view of Sasuke, of what he might live through, and what might face him later in the series. No pairings, and unfortunately, no mentioning of Sakura. I wanted to throw that in there, but I couldn't find any way that Sasuke would acknowledge it in the narration. 

I'm taking real liberties about the landscape. Warnings for depth.

**The Path of Brotherhood**

If it had been Sand or Grass, perhaps Sasuke would have felt differently about leaving. Or perhaps his feelings would have just been more obvious. Not that he had any on the subject -- getting out of Fire country as a missing-nin was just something he had to do. Just like living in this new place as a Sound ninja.

It was Orochimaru that suggested that he take walks and spend some time alone. Sasuke wasn't sure what to make of that, but he did admit, privately, that his focus was much better after them. He felt refreshed; as if there was something "out there" that replenished him, offsetting what Itachi and Orochimaru would take from him. What he would take out of himself.

However, it wasn't always like that. Some days, the light through the trees would hint at something like a sunrise of days of free time and it would be all Sasuke could do not to not rip his opponent's throat out on the next sparring match. On those days, Sasuke kept to locking himself in a the dampest, darkest corner of sound and setting enough boobytraps around the area that Kabuto would be the only one willing to fetch him in the morning.

Sound wasn't really what he expected when he left Fire country. They told each other jokes, played games, slacked off on guard duty (everyone thought it was funny at how upset Sasuke had been about this), and overall, acted like regular human beings. Sure, if you did certain things you would be killed immediately (directly serving under Orochimaru was a great honor and an equally great risk), but Sasuke didn't really have to worry about that. No matter how upset or provoked Orochimaru was, he never took it out on Sasuke.

And so Sasuke would make himself scarce whenever Orochimaru was angry.

There were days that he hated the Sound. It always reminded him of his past, what he left, where he had gone... and who was still alive. It wasn't like a gloom like the shrine he kept at his clan's complex did, but nevertheless it /lived/ through him. And he blamed Sound for it.

If Sound didn't have trees, then maybe he wouldn't be find himself walking up and down them all the time. If Sound didn't have water, he wouldn't have to see his reflection or the fish swimming below them. If Sound didn't have such lazy people performing guard duty, then he wouldn't have to hear their chatter while he slept facing away from the fire...

Sasuke decided that he needed a war.

Or maybe he just needed someone to argue with and beat up. But he had tried that at sparring practice (the beating up part) and was then told in no uncertain terms that a no-holds-barred fight was off-limits to someone too important to kill like Sasuke, and that if _he_ tried to kill someone, they would find ways to _restrain_ him.

Sasuke tried it once. He didn't try it again. Not that he ever /got/ to the point that he had to try it again, but that wasn't exactly the point. Having his chakra locked and forced to dress and work as a girl in the kitchens had been more than enough humiliation for him to take. That and... He almost attempted murder _again_ and it was only when Orochimaru stepped in did Sasuke look into his mentor's eyes and finally _saw_.

He had activated his Sharingan without even knowing. He thought he had outgrown that a long time ago.

It was after that that Kabuto personally became in charge of monitoring Sasuke.

He was refused his request to be sent on missions that Anbu in Leaf would normally be given. It was only after several straight weeks of bargaining did he manage to get himself on a team... and even then he could tell from the looks of his new teammates that they would treat him like a child. A deadly child, but still a child.

They stopped treating him that way when he kept one of them from being hit with the Rasengan and several other things in the chaos when they were ambushed on their second mission. Before Orochimaru could say anything, Sasuke personally refused to go on any missions for the rest of the month. Naruto was alive. How, he didn't know, but he was alive. Now the guards that would previously try to goad him into playing a game of cards now silently/guiltily watched him as he faced away from the fire.

His training became more and more harsh as pressure from Orochimaru increased. Sasuke preferred it that way, but he also hated the looks he got for it. They were afraid of him. "They" did not, but "they" treated him with respect. He was allowed to go on a few missions. "They" also taught him things along the way. Sasuke learned more and more and improved by leaps and bounds. It was everything that he came to Sound for and he was getting it now. His goals, his hatred, his _everything_ was coming closer to his grasp.

Then, one day, he threw an attack he rarely used and heard his opponent behind him, too late, too soon.

"What are you looking at? I'm right here you--"

His opponent never got to finish as everything went red. Suddenly, everything he had worked so hard for, everything he had built, simply _collapsed_. By the time he roused himself from his panic, Sasuke found himself just on the border of Sound, holding his right arm as it spasmed from strain from using the Chidori. He shivered. It was beginning to rain and he had nowhere to go.

It wasn't as if he couldn't go back. Orochimaru and Kabuto would let it go without even a shrug of their shoulders. Kabuto had hinted often enough what Sasuke was under supervision for. And as much as it made Sasuke want to kill someone, he had to admit that killing someone just because they reminded him of Naruto or Kakashi was stupid.

Sasuke wasn't stupid.

He could go forward, too, but where would that be? Maybe he could go to Grass, he thought suddenly. Maybe there would be something different for him there, and maybe his life would stop being so cursed and haunted by living spirits. Maybe he could find his br--Itachi and they could all be dead _finally_...

He ran.

It wasn't until almost a year later, when Naruto found him in the most deserted part of Earth country did his yelling of, "but do you HAVE to live Itachi's life instead of your own?.!" did he find himself stop suddenly in his tracks.

And it was his reply that began everything.

"No, you idiot -- I've been living both."


	2. Memoirs by Firelight

Author's Notes: It can stand alone, or it can be read as a sequel to "The Path of Brotherhood." Either way, Sasuke is probably around 22 or so, so it's now so far from the series that you could call it AU or OOC. It was written to be a sequel, though -- it expands on the original idea and universe of the first. But while I'm sure it'll give you less of a headache to read this than "Brotherhood," I really doubt that this will help you to understand "Brotherhood" in any way. Sorry. 

It's also less in Sasuke's point of view this time and more third person omnicient, even though he still is the main character of the story.

Oh yeah, and because I forgot it last time, disclaimer. Whoo.

**Memoirs by Firelight**

It took much longer than just "a few years" for Sasuke to forgive Itachi. In fact, it took even longer than _that_ for Sasuke to forgive Naruto for not letting him live down the fact that he got his hair tied into pigtails in Sound as punishment. It, however, took a fewer years than that before Sasuke would stop trying to set Naruto's hair on fire for even mentioning it. (And Naruto being Naruto, he mentioned it often.)

There were days that the ex-missing nin would tell a little bit of what he lived through in Sound. Most of the time, being in Sound was a lot like being under Kakashi's command. Ridiculous, unpredictable, and overall entertaining. Unless you were Sasuke.

Sometimes he just forgot that there was anything worth remembering. Still, for the most part, he did remember. And he listened to Naruto's stories of how his teammates did in his absence. He heard about the story of black curry from Hinata, though, of all people. And he heard about the deal with the water dancing from Neji... which was just strange, he had thought.

Sometimes, it was hard to believe that he _could_ relate his experiences to Naruto -- his worst enemy, his best friend -- nevermind the shock that he was relating them to begin with. It was always a private surprise when he would tell Naruto a story about Sound's thoughtfulness towards him without hearing a snarl at the mention of Orochimaru or Kabuto's name. Or without a sad look when he would tell him a story about his brother, relating what his mother had told him (because Itachi never did talk about himself).

It was even harder to believe, given that their own teacher could not handle stories about the past very well. Kakashi, who dealt with the past better than Sasuke himself did. Kakashi, however, never did bear responsibility very well, and so no matter how serious he got, always kept his book handy. But Naruto bore it all, and all without a flinch. In these and other ways, Naruto was Sasuke's stability and inspiration. _He_ remembered, _he_ didn't hide under his cloak, and _he_ didn't use missions to hide his feelings.

Sometimes, he wondered how they could be killers at all when they would remember so much more than just their chosen targets' names.

Especially when it came to times in which Naruto would run into such a horrible mission that Sasuke thought he might actually break, just this once. But he never did. He just spent his time cleaning the classrooms (he called it community service after all those years of practical jokes -- not that he ever stopped pulling them), cloudwatching with Shikamaru, helping Iruka grade papers, and overall, mostly pestering Tsunade until she threw a mission at him, flying him out the door until the wall or Shizune caught him.

In some other ways, Naruto was one of the more horrible pieces of human existance to rely on. He was barely on time for everything, forgot important mission details too easily, and most of all, when Sasuke was in a pissy mood, spent most of his time simply _standing_ there, neither provoking him nor stop trying to get his attention even though he wanted to brood in peace. And he refused to go away. It was as if he were saying, "I'm here. You're better than this. Talk." But Sasuke had no idea what _talking_ meant, so communication was always difficult at first, to say the least. As if it wasn't already bad with Sakura, with whom he had even less of an idea how to relate to.

Not that Kakashi helped at all either, since their ex-teacher didn't really understand them. Not really. He may have had a similar mindset and feeling as the two boys did, but Kakashi really wasn't like either of them at all, and so couldn't understand. Because they tried and he didn't.

That was unfair, Naruto said later. Maybe it was because he wasn't them that he didn't know what to do about his past.

But one day, Kakashi sat down and joined in on their storytelling. It originally began with just the two of them -- Naruto and Sasuke, but they added Sakura when Naruto had finally taught them how to behave towards each other. It involved Sakura being absolutely quiet when Sasuke spoke, because Sasuke simply couldn't be interrupted at some points of his storytelling. Or prompted, for that matter (which had Naruto visibly keeping his mouth shut at some points). And for Sakura, it involved Sasuke not "being an ass," as Naruto had so tactfully put it.

Naruto's style depended on the story, but it mostly involved lots of noise, like a party. Naruto was always like that... except when he wasn't. Sasuke would look away then, while Sakura stared head-on at the light in her teammate's eyes, then at Sasuke, then down at her feet. Kakashi usually showed no reaction at all.

Sakura's was like a lullaby, but not because it didn't really say much about her life; It didn't have to. She had a normal childhood, and so told them about stories that almost any child would have heard from their parents, of faraway lands, of monsters, mothers, and childhood squabbles with friends... things the other three all lacked in their lives. Naruto's monsters were too real to be monsters and Sasuke's were too real to be real. Kakashi had similar experiences to both. Still, there was no cohesion to their weeks without Sakura's stories, and the mood got too dark too easily without her... even if she was the one who was the most easily depressed.

Not that anything ever got to Naruto, who absolutely refused to let the rest of his team turn morose before him. And after all those times Naruto tried to aim kicks at his head when he wanted to be alone, Sasuke would be damned if he let Naruto have the satisfaction of getting moody on him. At least, not until he had the satisfaction of grinding his face into the ground.

Kakashi's stories were usually humorous, but often filled with distance. It seemed as if Kakashi heard much but never experienced much for himself directly. Perhaps he never let himself experience it. It was the times that he told stories that really were about himself did they finally learn what Kakashi had spent all those years of his life doing besides being a pervert, as Sakura had once put it. They learned about Sharingan Kakashi, the legend, his former teammates, his teacher, and even a few of the missions that they took together. He even went so far as to tell them about his Adventures With Maito Gai.

One day, he told them about Iruka.

Naruto's expression was that of a person so flattered that they didn't know what to do except smile and blink while Sakura's was simply of a hidden gasp and rounded eyes. Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow, but let the story be told without any negatives looks.

"It's cute when you hear about it now, but I was quite annoyed then," Kakashi had said as he poked the fire that they surrounded. For some reason, they always had a campfire for their weekly sessions, which sometimes meant that they spent their night at a yakiniku restaurant instead. (Naruto could always be counted on to burn something edible.)

There was little to hide by this point -- they all knew each other's past, fears, joys, and even guilty pleasures. That didn't stop them from being embarassed or annoyed when something was said out of turn or unexpectedly (or when said information was used to get extra helpings of ramen).

Like now.

"I wonder if we'll laugh this way again, if we run into something like that in the future," Naruto mused, eyes glowing in the fire. Then he seemed to realize that what he said didn't make much sense. Not that his clarification was much better. "I mean, that if we see it happen again before it becomes the past like this when we're talking like this and--"

Sakura stopped him before it got too convulted. "We got it the first time, Naruto."

"Hey, I was just checking!"

Naturally Sasuke had just the reply for that. "I can always just kick your ass into gear if your memory doesn't catch up in time."

"Or vice versa."

Sasuke didn't even bother to glare at Kakashi. He continued to stare at the fire as Sakura took her turn in the storytelling.

It was when Sasuke finally killed Itachi, or rather, when Itachi allowed himself to be killed, that the firechat sessions expand to fit a whole lot more of the rookie nine (plus Gai's team). The rules were dropped then, simply because the others couldn't be expected to understand everything in Team 7's interninja dynamics. Sasuke missed the time that they had spent then, quietly (or loudly) talking around the campfire, but he also knew that things weren't like that anymore. Couldn't be like that anymore.

For one, Kakashi was no longer around. Naruto was a lot _taller_, Sakura was Tsunade's personal secretary (and therefore constantly busy), and Sasuke was just quiet, not morose. He rarely said anything to anyone, and if he did, it was usually something only Team 7 would understand, like an offhand insult. After all those years, Ino and Kiba still didn't know what to do about those, much less Lee, who never failed to butt head first into them.

At least Iruka had come to join them. Naruto complained that it was like having your parents hang out with you at a slumber party. Sakura, with words as sharp as ever, told him that he didn't have any parents to compare to, so he shouldn't complain. Sasuke pretty much said the same thing in his own way -- he slid over his log to let the former teacher sit next to him. Kiba asked Naruto what difference did that make from Kakashi.

"He's more like the big brother that left to go out on a mission," Sasuke said, and there was silence as he began his story.

It would be a simple one this time -- just about him, his brother, and the time he pestered Itachi so much about shuriken practice that he tied him up and locked him in the closet, although not without first giving instructions on how to get out.

-

Author's comment: Before I hear any "You Killed Kakashi!" comments, uh, no, Kakashi's not dead. Just not there. He's a busy guy and they can take care of themselves.


	3. Beyond the Rose

Author's Notes: I'm not sure what I intended for this story (and the ones before it), but it seems to go along a certain feeling, always focused on the past. The past, the future, and the present that one lives through, to decide one's actions and life. Nothing is really stated completely outright, but some of it is obvious enough that it's not necessary. I also found myself taking out a lot of details, like the fact that Sakura actually plays a huge role during this time, but it's not neccessary to the story, so just assume that she's there, working hard and being a good friend.

And just if you're wondering, still no pairings.

(updated March 2007) _**About this story's timeline:**_ As of right now, there are two pieces that take place between the second and third chapters of this fic. Those are "Ownership," and the chapter called "Tsukiyomu Michi" of "The Collected Memoirs of an Insane Girl." Neither may or may not seem related (or make much sense, for that matter, but if you're reading this, then that's probably not much of a concern for me), but they do tell of the huge gap between. The gap could be anywhere between 5 to 12 years long, if you're wondering.

**Looking Beyond The Rose**

There were some days that Sasuke felt as if he should tear out his heart in sheer anger and leave it on the Hokage's desk, if only to settle his mind for those idiots that felt that he was "untrustworthy" for the position. They were worried about him, but Sakura was watching and it wasn't like he was going to go and give secrets away to Sound or anything. As if.

At least Itachi was gone, although the effects were still felt, several times a year.

On those days, he would go and find the highest mountain or tree and jump off of it. Although what he really wanted to do was bury himself underneath the tree, he settled for just scaring the hell out of Sakura each and every time. It was almost like how Tsunade's gambling scared Shizune constantly. Still, he always managed to do something in the last second to break his own fall. And once in a while, someone was there to actually try and catch him. He didn't encourage it, but sometimes it still happened.

One day, a little boy with bright blue eyes caught him.

The boy reminded him of Haku with his gentle demeanor and love of animals. So Sasuke sent him back with a flower to give to his teacher, Iruka. He told him that he would keep an eye out for the boy later, when the next genin exams came around. Iruka smiled proudly and said, "He's like my grandson. He's so nice and sweet; not like Naruto was... Hard to believe they're 'related.'"

Sasuke had smiled at that. It wasn't something he did too often, even now.

Some days, though, things were quiet and it was on those days that Sasuke would go to visit Naruto. Sometimes he would find Kakashi there already, but for the most part they were quiet and empty days, filled only with the scent of the grass and flowers that Ino had planted several years ago.

At first, Sakura had been against the idea of visiting. "You don't know what he would do to you, if he saw you there. He might take it the wrong way." But Sasuke shook his head and went anyway. Eventually, Sakura saw that Sasuke repeatedly came back without any scars, marks, or bruises on himself as a good omen, and one day, decided to go herself.

"I think I understand Ino a bit more now," was all she said when she came back.

After that, she began to refer to Naruto in the past tense. Sasuke never did and Sakura didn't comment on it.

There were also some days in which Sasuke felt despair, hopelessness, and tiredness. On those days, he would look at Naruto's portrait and hit the forehead of the image with his pen. "Not today," he said, and buried himself in his paperwork.

He could almost imagine Itachi looking out over him now; Itachi, who, when he last saw him, was drenched in the downpouring of rain that had been their last battleground; Itachi, who had been the one to use up the last of his life's chakra to give him his dying message: "Treasure him. Take care of him. He is your only family left." Itachi, who had said nothing about his family or himself before his death, spoke only of the Kyuubi vessel.

In some ways, his dying words weren't true. Sasuke thought that the present was proof that Itachi (or anyone) couldn't have predicted the future -- since he could never have predicted Naruto. Naruto wasn't the most unpredictable ninja in Konoha (and perhaps the world) for nothing, and everything he touched was like that.

Because now Konoha was Sasuke's family; as the family that Naruto had given to him. To treasure. To take care of.

"This is your new clan now -- just try not to kill them all off at once, okay?"

It was a joke, but perhaps seriously that was what the idiots around the council was so afraid of. That Sasuke would go nuts and kill them all. He snorted. As if the years he had spent in Konoha and at Naruto's side meant nothing... but the council never really did like Naruto anyway. Of course, Naruto never really had the chance to make them warm up to him... he had only gotten through half of them before he left... and Naruto worked quickly.

That left Sasuke with the other half to deal with.

Where Naruto had tried to get them to dissolve their prejudices, Sasuke didn't let them get the chance to even use them -- the things he demanded of the council didn't require their approval, affection, or trust. It wasn't that he tried or didn't try, but simply that such things didn't concern him as much. Even if they were stubborn and paranoid.

However, one day, something changed. He didn't know what had done it or who had said what, but after a few months, everything began to run smoothly enough that he didn't need Konohamaru and Shikamaru to be running liason to them anymore. Konohamaru complained about the way that they smelled.

"They smell like dust all the time and I wanna sneeze. I don't know why we have to deal with these old geezers. I mean, you're the Hokage -- Naruto-niichan didn't--ow." Sasuke had hit him on the head to shut him up.

"I don't know if you knew it, but Naruto respects those old geezers much more than anyone else ever did. Do you know why they smell like dust?" Sasuke paused only long enough to see Konohamaru shake his head. "That's because they carry a greater burden than the dobe ever had to bear. Naruto is lucky in that sense, since he was protected by the Yondaime from it from birth."

"What was that?"

Sasuke almost didn't hear the question. He had turned away to look out the window -- the window that he used to enter through into Naruto's office... which was now his. To the sky beyond the window that he felt so clearly when facing death... to the horizon where his best friend was waiting for him to come home to. To his other family, which he missed so much, now that his heart was open to bear.

"Immortality," he whispered, and grieved.

-

Notes: My thanks for reading this far.


End file.
